


the empty house

by setgo



Series: as seen on tv [3]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akechi Goro Has A Palace, Akechi Goro's General Sort Of Deal, Gen, Idiots in Inaba AU, Past Child Abuse, Persona 5 Protagonist is from Inaba, Post-Canon, Well. Technically it's a P4 style dungeon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:13:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27626603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/setgo/pseuds/setgo
Summary: "Thank you, everyone, for joining us on this very special broadcast of the Midnight Channel!"A familiar voice intoned, an deja-vu distortion filtering over his every word with unbridled joy and malice like a buzzing static that couldn't shake off."That's -" Ann, wide-eyed and illuminated by the marigold glow, stared in disbelief.The shining, yellow-eyed detective prince smiled with a zirconia-worthy fakeness that glimmered amongst the blank shutter-sea of flashing cameras. No mask, no weapon, costumed in blinding red, white, and gold.Akechi Goro, for as long as Akira had known him, had always excelled at lying on TV.The Phantom Thieves, reunited in the sleepy town of Inaba, re-open an investigation.
Relationships: Kurusu Akira & Akechi Goro, Kurusu Akira & Phantom Thieves of Hearts, background Suzui Shiho/Takamaki Ann
Series: as seen on tv [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1774411
Comments: 20
Kudos: 81





	the empty house

This world was cold, but it was not empty.

Akechi Goro limped through the red-tinged street of the husk of a town, blade trailing behind him and scratching the street. Ripped-up police tape criss-crossed its way across bent signposts and ruined sidewalks. The silhouette of the never-ending calamity town struck gray against the crimson sky.

It was gaudy in its malevolence, to the point that Akechi was almost embarrassed to be here. Whatever halfwitted soul ruled this palace was a _true_ idiot, he thought, stepping over a gash in the concrete that had ripped a gasping streetlight in two.

It was even worse than the bathhouse he had stumbled through however long ago, with its sticky humidity that clung to the interior of his helmet and the faint dampness that carried underfoot. At least that hadn't been so lurid.

Akechi didn't know how he got here, wherever _here_ was. He didn't know how long he'd been walking either, through the abandoned palaces where the faint sound of gray static buzzed in his ears like it was its job.

He had been floating somewhere, where the light poked through the closing of his eyelids but wasn't bright enough to open them, and then he had woken up somewhere else.

And now, Akechi tried not to think about the fact that every palace had been vacant of anything resembling a person.

He stopped in the storefront of a ruined inn, valiantly ignoring the ripped up posters and dried-up dark stains staining the shattered windows, taking off his helmet and allowing a brief moment of clear-ish air to flow through his lungs. The endless mist that crawled through his being and set its grinning wings on every corner of every palace was a little easier to deal without his entire costume on.

His eyes cast through the windows and into a desolate bedroom, where paint slashed the wooden walls - 

_\- and there's a noose._

Because of course there was.

_I hate it here._

Akechi could sense the approaching weight of shadows. _More weaklings,_ Loki supplied, but still something he'd rather avoid wasting his time on. He stood up, braced his weight with his blade, and squinted into the mist.

The interior of the bedroom was not dusty, which would have been disconcerting on its own if not for _everything else_ about the room. Red stains littered the walls and sinking bedsheets, and the posters of a woman dressed in red held ragged tears in the flimsy, glossy paper where her face should be.

It really was a _lot._

Akechi held back the pit of annoyance and nausea that began to bubble in his throat, instead focusing on the reason he had come this far. Fixed his helmet back onto his face.

Clawed through the wall like ripped up paper of reality was a spiralling red and black void beckoning him further - _another exit_ . Though probably as useful as all the other portals had been, leaving him in a seemingly never-ending loop of bizarre and nauseating Palaces. An empty shopping district, a castle, a bathhouse, a nightclub, yet _another_ castle, a laboratory, a cloud-stricken kingdom, and most recently, this ruined town.

He really should have just stayed in the previous Palace. As uneasy and melancholy as the pseudo-paradise made him feel, it hadn't made his head ache quite so badly.

And, at the very least, there had been less nooses.

He eyed the clouded tear in non-reality again, and sighed.

He had to go _somewhere._

* * *

Nights in the Velvet Room could never have been called _restful,_ but this time Akira couldn't blame clanking handcuffs or leaky iron pipes. It wasn't exactly warm, but it wasn't cold either, and the rich velveteen pillows and couches that decorated the lighthouse's observation deck were more than comfortable. It still echoed with that same solo voice, a familiar song that could almost be welcome, if not for the earth-shaking revelations Akira had been handed on a silver-haired platter.

"So he's alive. That's," Akira perched himself on a velvet blue cushion, "...a development."

"I imagine it must be quite a shock." Lavenza stood faithfully besides Igor, arm tucked around the Compendium and staring directly up at Akira, not blinking. She didn't really tend to do that.

"Where is he now?"

She hummed in thought, "Somewhere in the depths of the shadow world, I'd imagine, though I cannot say where exactly. There is a nameless mist that obscures his presence."

"What _kind_ of mist?"

"You recall the distortion that took hold of the Sea of Souls on your previous journey? The mist does something of that sort, obscuring the hearts of the people as Mementos once did."

"...So this place is another Mementos." _Great._

Lavenza shook her head, a hint of the same impatience Caroline and Justine prided themselves on peeking through, as her hair sprawled behind her like a veil.

"Think of it this way: Mementos was an island created of the Sea of Souls. The form it took was malleable, and it operated depending on how the collective unconscious deemed appropriate," she explained, "the Shadow World that resides parallel to Yasoinaba is another one of these islands, with its _own_ set of rules and its own complications."

Akira paused, drinking in the explanation. "And are they following me? These 'islands?'"

"It is hard to say. Though this shadow world has long existed, it has not taken this form in quite a while. Worlds of cognition are a tricky thing to parse for single _causes_ and _effects,_ but it is possible. What those may be, we are not quite sure, but you may be one of them," she paused, giving a rueful smile up at Akira, "You are one who wields the power of a Wild Card, after all."

"So I'm a cognitive nonsense magnet."

"You act as though you are not eager to step back into the fray." Lavenza replied, "Do you believe that Akechi Goro deserved the fate he was dealt?"

She stared. Behind the velvet-blue walls, the windows framed an ever-expanding starlight past a horizon Akira could only begin to imagine. Their shadows stretched further and further as the beam encircled them once more, his blackened silhouette threatening to engulf the very room itself against the flare.

"...Did any of us?"

Lavenza smiled, a glint to her golden eyes that flared against the pure white of the lantern's waves. "Then I suppose we shall have to leave you on your way, Trickster. I wish you the best of luck."

Akira's consciousness began to fade to black, the room around fading to nothingness with Lavenza's last words echoing in his mind.

"Please give Suzui-san my regards."

He blinked awake.

_...And I have exams today._

* * *

legal teen activities

**FOX**

Has anyone seen my sword

I appear to have misplaced it

**ORACLE**

A WHOLE SWORD?

INARI????

**FOX**

Yes i appear to have misplaced it

**NOIR**

Where did you see it last?

**FOX**

Hm... 

**SKULL**

i mean if he knew that feel like wed have found it by now

**ORACLE**

did u drag ryuji into this as well

**SKULL**

were just lookin around his dorm rn

**PANTHER**

yusuke why do you have so many sketchbooks

**FOX**

I feel like that is rather self explanatory given my chosen field

**SKULL**

yea hes got a point

like ann whyve you got so many clothes

**PANTHER**

half of them are blank

i wear all of my clothes

**ORACLE**

u wear the same thing every day

**PANTHER**

because of school uniforms???

**ORACLE**

well inari worse comes to worse paper is edible

**FOX**

Ill keep it in mind.

* * *

Akira tabbed over to Haru's contact.

**HARU**

The radishes are coming in quite nicely! Mako-chan really liked them, I think!

Hopefully there will be enough room in the van to bring some produce. Do you think they might be good in curry?

**AKIRA**

Hey, Haru. I |

* * *

He paused, backspacing until nothing remained. Tabbed away.

* * *

**FUTABA**

check it outtttt dont tell mona i got him a little hat and socks for christmas. hes gonna hate it. itll be so funny i promised sojiro id take pics

should i bring a router how shit is ur wifi

 **FUTABA**

oh lol ur in class rn. nerd

**AKIRA**

There's something |

Guess who isn't |

* * *

His thumb hovered over the keyboard. The numbing cold bit the tips of his fingers, stalling the words.

"Wow. You look like shit. Did you sleep at all?"

He tucked the phone away.

"Thank you, Shiho. I'm also glad you finished your exams and am excited to spend this break with our friends."

Akira and Shiho stood outside of Yasogami's gates, watching the flood of excited students burst from the doors and into the loving, frozen embrace of Winter break. 

Shiho stretched her arms upward and let a shiver run down her body, "Augh! Why's it gotta be so _cold!"_

"It's December."

"That's besides the point." A plume of smoke wafted from her mouth in the cold winter chill as Shiho let out a long sigh. "Anyway, how much longer 'till everyone's here?"

"Tomorrow," Akira replied, "College schedules are a little different. Also, I think Yusuke lost his sword."

"I mean, you could just get a new one. There's that weaponsmith guy in the shopping district, I think." Shiho crinkled her face in concern, as if wondering why a town like Inaba had a _weaponsmith_.

"Daidara won't sell to me. Besides, I only trust Iwai's stuff."

"Isn't it literally plastic?"

"That's besides the point."

While Shiho and Akira had stood bemoaning the cold, school, and the fact their friends weren't showing up for a _whole day_ , a stranger had approached the thinning crowds at the Yasogami gates.

Older than Akira but too young to be somebody's parent, despite his silver hair and glasses, with a face that seemed vaguely familiar. The man's bowl cut was slightly disheveled as he shuffled a backpack and suitcase. The man's attire was equally confusing: a black and gray ensemble that clashed horribly with his rainbow ombre print scarf of cats playing with yarn and bright yellow hat.

"Do you... know him?" Shiho looked at him, then at Akira, confused.

Bowlcut man caught Akira's wayward stare and waved.

"Uh," Akira shrugged, squinting across the gates and at the man, "this town's not that big, so I've probably seen him around."

Bowlcut pulled out his phone and tapped one-handedly on the screen, tugging his eyesore of a scarf closer to his face as a last bastion against the cold.

"I'm gonna get Ann that scarf. I've decided."

"It looks like it's hand knit."

"I'll figure it out."

_"Big bro!"_

Akira and Shiho jumped at the sudden noise, Akira whipping his head around as a blur of chestnut brown hair and Yasogami gray bolted past him.

Nanako Dojima hurtled towards the young man at an alarming speed, tackling him into the ground as she wrapped her arms around him, the very picture of glee. "You're early!"

"I thought I'd surprise you," Nanako's brother said, trying and failing to get off the ground. 

Nanako tugged him upwards, jabbing a finger at his scarf. "I can't believe you're wearing that thing! It's embarrassing!"

"But I like it." Her brother smiled softly in response, though with a teasing slant to his words.

 _"He's_ Nanako's _brother?"_ Shiho whispered not-so-quietly, "But they don't look anything alike…"

Nanako's brother looked up at Akira and Shiho, unstartled. "I'm her cousin, actually, but we're close enough she calls me her big bro." 

"Oh, uh -" Shiho coughed. "Sorry. We didn't mean to eavesdrop."

Nanako beamed, clapping her hands together as she saw the two of them standing there. "Big bro, this is Suzui-senpai. She's the one who's been helping our team!"

The brother gave an appreciative nod towards Shiho, tilting his head slightly as he spoke. "Thanks for helping her out, Suzui-san."

Shiho spluttered, trying to hide her reddening ears. "It's no trouble! Nanako's great! The whole team is!"

"She really is." Nanako gave an embarrassed yelp in response to her brother's praise, which he staunchly ignored. "...My name's Narukami Yu, by the way."

_I am thou._

He gave an odd glance at Akira, a faint buzz washing over his gaze even as he offered his hand. A hum emanated from inside him, that against all common sense should shock like static but was magnetic in its warmth instead.

Narukami held out his hand.

_Thou art -_

"Kurusu Akira," Akira shook his hand. 

The gesture seems to break Narukami's absentmindedness. He blinked, infinitesimally shaking his head. "Ah, sorry, I must be tired from the train. It's nice to meet you, Kurusu-kun."

"...Nice to meet you too."

Narukami and Nanako waved goodbye as they made their way down the road, Nanako chattering excitedly up at her older brother while quick plumes of condensation vanished into the horizon. It's unmistakable. Akira feels something from Narukami, something that might be called familiarity. _But where…?_

"Oh, I remember now." Akira realized, "Narukami stayed here a few years ago. Old ladies love him."

"What?"

"Yeah, he did favors for the entire town while he was here."

Yu Narukami had become something of a local legend, the Dojima boy who through kindness and hard work, had managed to charm the entire town of Inaba. Or at least that's what one of Akira's former (current) classmates had said.

 _Nobody had mentioned the bowlcut, though,_ Akira thought as he and Shiho made their way to his house. 

The shroud of dead yellow leaves scattered beneath the heavy weight of December snow, now musty and gray from a few days' worth of foot traffic.

"So…" Shiho drawled, kicking her feet across the pavement and dragging long lines in the slush and snow.

"So?"

"What's the plan, leader man? Once everyone's here, what are we doing?"

Akira looked down at the pavement where the snow had powdered the ground like a mist, covering the tiny cracks in the street, "That's... what we're going to discuss."

"So you have no idea."

"I'm open to suggestions."

"Um…" Shiho tapped her chin, "my suggestion is we get something to eat. I'm starving."

"Aiya's or Junes?"

She weighed the two options with more severity than it deserved, and shrugged. "Let's go to Aiya's. We did just finish exams."

* * *

"...There's something I should tell you. Before everyone gets here."

"Huh?" Shiho looked up from her ramen. Aiya's heavy humidity had fogged up Akira's glasses, but the warmth was a welcome respite to the biting gray cold.

"You remember what I told you about one of our heists? The casino?"

"With Makoto's sister? And…" Her face twisted as she recalled the Phantom Thieves' crash course of _crazy shit that happened last year_. "All that."

Akira nodded. "You remember everything we told you about Akechi Goro, right?"

"...The… detective prince? Didn't he try and kill all of you?" Shiho narrowed her eyes, "Wait, why are you bringing that up?

Akira continued walking, fishing for the most tactful way to discuss what he'd learned.

"He's alive. And I'm pretty sure he's stuck inside of the TV."

He couldn't think of one.

Shiho stopped in her tracks. Opened her mouth. Closed it again. Opened it again. 

"...So that's why you've been off all day." She settled on.

"I haven't been _off_ -"

"Your shirt's on backwards." She pointed her chopsticks' towards his shirt.

Akira looked down. Sure enough, the gaudy red t-shirt he had "borrowed" from Ryuji showed no hint of a logo on its front.

"...You didn't think to mention this sooner?"

"I thought it was funny, but now I'm just concerned." Shiho shrugged, then shook her head. "Anyway, you're dodging the question! How come you haven't _told_ everyone?"

"I literally found out _last night._ I… was suspicious about everything, but I didn't know he was even _alive."_

The clattering warmth of Aiya felt suddenly out of place. 

"...So now what?" Shiho asked, through their mutual silence.

"We go and find him." Akira replied, not hesitating. That, at least, he was confidant in. _Everything else about it..._

"Yeah, but…" Shiho gestured aimlessly, "...is he going to try and, y'know, kill you again?"

"Probably not."

" _Probably_ not?! He's _probably_ _not_ going to try and murder you?"

"It's like, a 95% chance -"

" _Akira."_

"99%, then. He doesn't have any reason to."

The glare that Shiho sent was withering, but Akira was resistant to curse. Instead, he picked up his chopsticks and returned to the beef bowl.

"We can't just leave him in there." He said with all the finality he could muster.

"...I guess so." She picked at a burnt corner of beef. The towering pile of rice and meat somehow seemed all the more mountainous.

"Are you gonna finish that?"

"Yes."

Inaba was cold, and gray, and miserable even on the best of winter days. But, at the very least, now he knew what he had to do.

Akira took another bite of rice.

* * *

legal teen activities

**ORACLE**

todays the day! ٩!(ര̀ワ<)و

let's go, phantom thieves!!~~

**NOIR**

Are you sure it's alright for all of us to stay at your place? I wouldn't want to impose on you and your parents

**JOKER**

They won't mind.

**ORACLE**

mona jr is loaded up and ready for a roadtrip

**JOKER**

Mona says he "refuses to let some hunk of metal be named after me"

But I think he just needs to learn to love Mona Jr.

**FOX**

Ive heard about things like this before

Older siblings may become jealous when a new child is born

**ORACLE**

this is so sad

**JOKER**

If that's what it takes for him to learn to share.

Being a singel parent means learning how to disciplinefrkm jnmn

He is stiing onmy face

**ORACLE**

🦀🦀🦀 AKIRA IS DEAD 🦀🦀🦀

**SKULL**

this is so sad

were meeting at leblanc rite? after school?

**JOKER**

b 56cxj

^ Mona

We'll have a strategy meeting once you all get here.

**NOIR**

See you soon!

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> here we go! i've been hashing the details of this one out for a bit. it's been sort of tough to write, considering the cast is a bit bigger and the dungeon is... not very straightforward (more on that in later chapters). it's a balancing act. also i had to retroactively push as seen on tv into mid december because the timeline didn't make sense otherwise
> 
> for that reason AND the fact i decided to brilliantly start this in the midst of my finals, this fic will probably be slow updating! i'm sorry! i have the arc of it and all the plot beats planned, but i'm not a fast writer and some details of it are still sort of up in the air.
> 
> please leave a comment if you enjoy! points if you can figure out where the chapter title(s) come from.
> 
> next time: the desperate revival


End file.
